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Bryn  Mawr  Notes 
and  Monographs 

ii 
the  play  of  the 
sibyl  cassandra 


: 


: 


BRYN  MAWR  NOTES 

AND   MONOGRAPHS 

II 


THE  PLAY  OF  THE  SIBYL 
CASSANDRA 


. 


J     -    ..      -    .  - 


King  Solomon  and  the  Queen  of  Sheba 

(From  the  Cathedral  portal  at  Burgo  de  Osma) 


THE   PLAY   OF  THE 
SIBYL  CASSANDRA 


By 
GEORGIANA  GODDARD  KING,  M.A. 

Professor  of  the  History  of  Art  in  Bryn  Mawr  College 
Member  of  the  Hispanic  Society  of  America 


BRYN   MAWR  COLLEGE 
Bryn  Mawr,  Pennsylvania 

LONGMANS,   GREEN  AND  CO. 
New  York,  Bombay,  Calcutta,  and  Madras 

1921 


) 


: 


Pi?  i ' 


Copyright,  1921,  by 
BRYN    MAWR  COLLEGE 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 


THE  PLAY  OF  THE  SIBYL 
CASSANDRA 

Venho  da  coua  Sebila 
onde  se  esmera  e  estila 
a  sotileza  .    .    . 
—Gil  Vicente,  1513. 

The  Auto  of  the  Sibyl  Cassandra,  written 
by  Gil  Vicente1  for  performance  on  Christ- 
mas  Eve  in   1503,   marks   a  moment   of 
transition  in  the  history  of  the  Peninsular 
drama.     Vestiges  of  the  liturgical  drama 
appear,  for  reasons  which  shall  be  con- 
sidered;   the   new-fangled   pastoral,    first 
played  just  ten  years  before,  by  Juan  del 
Encina,  before  the  Duke  of  Alva,  is  here 
apparent  and  acclimated;  a  theme  more  or 
less    humanistic    and    dear    to    the    early 
Renaissance  here  mingles  with  a  strain  of 
pure  folk-lore.     The  art  is  quattrocento  in 
essence  but  serene  and  sure,  and  Cassandra 
the  sibyl  is  own  sister  to  Neroccio's  sibyl  on 
the   pavement    at    Siena    and    Perugino's 
sibyls  in  the  Cambio  at  Perugia. 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


Elements 
mingled 


Art 

quattro- 
cento 


II 


2 

THE     PLAY     OF     THE 

Gil  Vicente 
and  Spenser 

Halls  of 
Kings 

Scholars  are  used  to  speaking  of  Gil 
Vicente  as  though  his  autos  pastoriles  were 
like  Spenser's  eclogues  in  the  Shepherd's 
Calendar,  artificial  and  courtly  essays, 
merely,  in  a  new  style.  Spenser  says  that 
he  imitated  Clement  Marot;  and  Gil 
Vicente,  his  contemporaries  relate,  imi- 
tated Juan  del  Encina;  there  is  little  like- 
ness else.  Unlike  Spenser's  the  pieces  are 
plays,  conceived  for  representation  and  de- 
pendent on  acting  in  form  and  substance 
both;  they  descend  in  the  legitimate  line, 
as  I  hope  to  show,  from  the  mediaeval  and 
religious  drama. 

Gil  Vicente,  like  Juan  del  Encina,  wrote 
for  courtly  and  noble  personages.  The 
earliest  pastorals  of  the  Salmantine  musi- 
cian were  acted  in  the  halls  of  the  Duke  of 
Alva;  the  Christmas  Mysteries  of  the 
Portuguese  poet  were  similarly  intended, 
like  his  Four  Seasons  and  The  Triumph  of 
Winter.  It  would  seem  that  the  Christmas 
play  was  habitually  staged  in  a  great  hall; 
at  the  right  moment  a  curtain  withdrawn 
revealed  a  creche  with  figures  carved  and 
coloured,  in  essence  just  such  as  Spanish 

II 

BRYN     MAWR     NOTES 

1 


SIBYL     CASSANDRA 


churches  still  bring  out  at  the  season. 
While,  enhanced  by  all  the  resources  of 
lighting  and  splendid  costume,  the  Divine 
Persons  were  thus  revealed,  members  of 
the  household,  disguised  in  appropriate 
dress  of  frieze  and  sheepskins,  spoke  and 
sang  the  poet's  words  and  danced  as  well. 
In  one  of  these  autos  the  Three  Kings  pass 
by,  as  splendid  in  apparel  and  attendance, 
doubtless,  as  Royalty  could  make  them, 
but  they  scarcely  speak.  So  in  the  four- 
teenth century  they  had  passed  through 
the  streets  of  Milan,2  a  superb  cortege: 
with  servants  and  horses,  mules  loaded 
with  treasure,  and  strange  creatures  from 
the  east,  chained  apes  and  hunting  leopards, 
while  the  church  towers  rocked  with  the 
bells.  So  in  Valencia3  the  huge  cars  called 
there  roca  dragged  through  the  streets 
figures  of  actors  and  professional  jongleurs 
who  enacted  the  Mysteries  or  assisted.  In 
the  courtly  world  of  Castile  and  Portugal, 
however,  the  action  was  transferred  not 
from  the  church  to  the  street  but  from  the 
chapel  to  the  great  hall. 

It  is  this  migration  of  the  actors,  ready 


AND     MONOGRAPHS 


Streets  of 
cities 


II 


iSabes  de 
achaque  de 
igreja! 


Persons 


Songs 


II 


THE     PLAY    OF    THE 


dressed,  so  to  speak,  for  the  ancient  litur- 
gical mysteries,  which  must  explain  what 
has  hitherto  been  a  puzzle  insoluble,  Gil 
Vicente's  Auto  de  la  Sibila  Casandra. 

The  persons  are,4  a  comely  wayward 
shepherdess  called  Cassandra,  who  will  not 
marry,  no  not  she !  a  shepherd  Solomon  who 
sighs  for  her  in  vain,  her  three  aunts  called 
Persica,  Erythraea,  and  Cimmeria,  her 
three  uncles  Moses,  Abraham,  and  Isaiah. 
Had  ever  shepherdess  so  strange  a  kin? 
Gil  Vicente  was  a  rare  poet,  with  a  lyrical 
gift  matchless  among  his  peers,  comparable 
only  to  the  best  of  our  own  Elizabethan 
wood-notes.  The  songs  are  delicious:  a 
cradle  song  of  the  angels,  a  Praise  of  Our 
Lady,  Cassandra's  disavowal  of  matri- 
mony, her  uncles'  madrigal  on  the  theme 
of  a  wilful  maid,  fair  as  flowers,  ungovern- 
able as  the  sea. 

One  may  be  quoted : 

To  be  married  I  must  go; 
So  they  say,  but  I  say  no. 
I  would  rather  safe  abide 
Single  on  this  mountain  side 


BRYN     M  A  W  R     NOTES 


\ 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 

5 

Than  at  hazard  change  my  state 
For  a  good  or  evil  mate. 
To  be  married  I  must  go; 
So  say  they,  but  I  say  no.5 

There  is  just  enough  plot  to  last  out  a 
long  hour  on  Christmas  Eve:    Cassandra 
has  no  encouragement  to  give  the  shepherd 
when  he  woos  or  her  aunts  when  they 
reason.      She  is  determined  against  mar- 
riage.     The   familiar   arguments   are   re- 
hearsed, but  the  tone  is  graver  than   in 
French  pieces.     Solomon,  who  has  fetched 
her  aunts  from  the  village,   returns  and 
fetches  her  uncles,  and  they  greet  her  with 
offerings,  bracelets,  rings  and  a  chain,  as 
though  they  had  forgotten  their  role  and 
were  Reyes  Magos.     They  argue  the  case; 
Moses  relates  the  creation  and  Cassandra 
reminds  him  that  the  devil  took  a  hand 
there:    Abraham  asks  if  a  good  husband 
would  make  no  difference  and  thereat  she 
declares  herself  frankly.     There  is  no  man 
whose  temper  may  not  change,  God  only 
is  immutable,  and  knowing  that  God  in- 
tends to  be  born  of  a  virgin,  she  intends  to 

Plot 

Christmas 
Gifts 

For  the 
Greeks 
a  god  was 
Cassandra's 
lover 

AND     MONOGRAPHS 

II 

Prophecy 


The  proud 
sibyl 


II 


THE     PLAY    OF     THE 


be  that  Virgin.  Erythraea  confirms  her 
prophecy :  He  will  be  laid  in  a  manger  and 
the  mother  will  be  virgin  still;  shepherds 
and  wise  kings  from  the  east  will  come 
with  gifts  to  adore.  Cimmeria  too  has 
dreamed  and  forecast,  she  has  seen  a  virgin 
giving  suck,  and  afterwards  has  seen  that 
same  virgin  brighter  than  the  sun,  crowned 
with  stars  and  ringed  around  with  a  thou- 
sand damsels.  Cassandra  reiterates  that 
from  her  He  shall  be  born,  for  none  can  be 
worthier  in  virtue  or  lineage.  Then  says 
Solomon,  "Cassandra  raves!"  and  turns  on 
his  heel.  Moses  and  Isaiah  rebuke  her, 
ending  on  a  pretty  turn:  " God's  match- 
less mother,  look  you,  will  be  humbly  born, 
will  conceive  in  humbleness,  and  in  hu- 
mility bring  forth."  With  this  a  curtain  is 
withdrawn  and  four  angels  sing  a  lullaby. 
So  all  adore,  in  set  speeches,  and  Cas- 
sandra, still  proudly,  apologizes: 

Child,  I  adore  thy  potency 
Steadfastly : 

At  thy  feet  I  say  my  sin; 
Since  excuse  I  have  none  within 
I  am  weak;  then  pity  me.6 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 

7 

The  three  sibyls  praise  the  Virgin  alter- 
nately;  the  adoration  being  ended,  a  song 
concludes : 

Lovely  is  the  damsel  there, 
Beauteous  and  very  fair. 

Tell  me,  sunburnt  mariner, 
Living  out  in  ships  at  sea, 

If  any  ship  or  sail  or  star 
Be  fair  as  she? 

Tell  me,  knight  drawn  from  afar, 
Clad  in  splendid  armoury, 

If  any  horse  or  arms  or  war 
Be  fair  as  she? 

Tell  me,  gentle  shepherd  child, 
Keeping  sheep  beneath  a  tree, 

If  flock  or  vale  or  mountain  wild 
Be  fair  as  she? 

What  have  all  these  prophets  and  sibyls 
to  do  with  such  an  eclogue?     Nowhere  is 
there  the   least  trace  of   allegory.      The 
dialogue  is  pastoral,  direct  and  unmistak- 
able, the  costumes  are  ritual,  plain  to  be 
identified. 

Praise  of 
Our  Lady 

Pastoral  yet 
ritual 

AND     MONOGRAPHS 

II 

8 

THE     PLAY    OF     THE 

History 

Juan  del 
Encina 

The  history  of  the  presentation  of  these 
early  plays  is,  fortunately,  known:   in  the 
early  editions  they  are  headed,  and  often 
interlarded,  with  so-called  rubrics,  which 
are  half  stage -direction  and  half  informa- 
tion.    Of  Juan  del  Encina's  we  thus  know 
that  the  First  Eclogue  was  presented  on 
Christmas  Eve,  "in  which  are  represented 
two  shepherds,  one  called  John  and  the 
other  Matthew,  and  the  one  called  John 
entered  first  into  the  hall  in  which  the  Duke 
and  Duchess  of  Alva  were  hearing  matins, 
and  went  up  to  present,  in  the  name  of 
Juan  del  Encina,  a  hundred  coplas  on  the 
same   feast,   addressed   to   the   Duchess." 
Another  piece  was  played  the  same  night 
by  four  shepherds,  called  by  the  name  of 
the  four  evangelists :  and  here  the  text  says 
that   "the  two  shepherds  above,  John  and 
Matthew,  being  in  the  hall  where  matins 
were    said,    to    them    entered    two    other 
shepherds,  called  Luke  and  Mark,  and  all 
four  commenced  to  reason  of  the  nativity 
of  Christ":7     very  dully,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed.    In  1502  the  poet  was  already  in 
Rome,  but  he  had  left  the  Pastoral,  rooted 

II 

BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 

Kinn    mju.  niojiiuvu 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 

9 

and  nourishing,  behind  him.     Lucas  Fer- 
nandez, in  Salamanca,  was  to  indite  many 
an  eclogue,  many  a  "farse  or  quasi-com- 
edy,"  and  publish  them  all  in  1514,  couch- 
ing his  shepherds'  talk,  like  Encina,  in  the 
neighboring  dialect  called  sayagiies.     Gil 
Vicente,  in  Portugal,  was  to  write  his  in 
round  Castilian. 

His  debt  to  Juan  del  Encina  was  recog- 
nized in  his  own  country:    Garcia  de  Re- 
sende  says   explicitly  that  the   one  inau- 
gurated  the   pastoral  and   the  other   im- 
proved it;  the  passage  is  famous.8    Famous 
too  is  the  Monologue  which  was  his  first 
essay.     On  June  6th  in  1502,  two  nights 
after  the  birth  of  the  heir  to  the  throne  of 
Portugal,   the  poet   disguised   as   a   cow- 
herd entered  the  chamber  of  the  Queen 
Mother  to  congratulate  her  on  the  young 
prince  who  was   to   be  John   III.      The 
bumpkin  is  strange  at  first,  and  startled,  in 
the  palace,  but  he  delivers  his  lines  and 
calls  in  shepherds  after  him  who  offer  to 
the  prince  their  rustic  presents  of  eggs, 
fruits,  curds,  honey,  and  the  like.     These, 
says  Theofilo  Braga,9  were  the  noble  gentle- 

Lucas 
Fernandez 

The  first 
play 

and  its 
players 

AND     MONOGRAPHS 

II 

_   _    . 

10 


The  second 


II 


THE     PLAY     OF     THE 


men  of  the  court,  the  gracious  poets  of  the 
Cancioneiro;  and  they  were  habited  in 
sheepskins,  I  suppose,  like  shepherds  from 
the  hills.  The  little  play  so  pleased  the 
queen  Dona  Lianor,  because  it  was  a 
novelty  in  Portugal,  says  the  rubric,  that  she 
asked  for  a  repetition  on  Christmas  Eve 
" directed  to  the  birth  of  the  Redeemer"; 
the  poet  did  as  bidden,  but  in  addition  he 
wrote  a  pretty  play  between  six  shepherds. 
He  had  a  facile  and  nimble  muse:  for 
Twelfth  Day  thereafter  (1503)',  he  wrote 
the  Play  of  the  Three  Kings.         is*  (£  O^** 

When  Christmas  came  in(1503^the  court 
was  keeping  the  holy  feast  at  a  convent, 
Enexobregas  says  the  rubric,  and  another 
pastoral  was  wanted  for  Dona  Lianor. 
Precisely  as  he  had,  with  great  success, 
made  the  Wise  Men  of  the...East  pass 
across  the  stage  the  year  before,  so  here 
again  Gil  Vicente  selected  figures  out  of 
the  Christmas  mysteries  and  used  them 
for  his  pastoral,  the  prophets  and  sibyls 
who  prophesied  in  the  old  liturgical  drama 
and  had  never  quitted  the  stage.  Theo- 
filo    Braga,    recognizing   that   they   came 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


r^itii  i *±uw.   iaiv/iLLu 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 


straight  out  of  the  Middle  Age,  suggests 
that  the  pastoral  was  played  in  the  con- 
vent chapel,  in  the  midst  of  the  midnight 
office.  This  seems  hardly  credible:  Isaiah 
dancing  down  the  aisle,  Abraham  and 
Moses  jigging  with  Cassandra,  Solomon 
cutting  a  pigeon-wing  before  the  altar, 
with  the  sibyls  capering  three  by  three  in 
a  wild  round  through  the  nave,  would  pre- 
sent a  spectacle  that  sorts  ill  with  the 
dignity  alike  of  the  Lord  Abbot  or  of  the 
royal  guests.  Convents  in  Spain  and 
Portugal  built  palaces  adjacent,  and  in 
some  hall  or  chamber  of  suitable  size  the 
creche  was  installed  and  curtained  off,  the 
court  established,  and  the  actors  intro- 
duced. It  is  more  than  probable,  however, 
that  the  rich  and  characteristic  costumes  of 
the  actors,  of  prophets  and  sibyls,  were 
the  property  of  the  monastery,  laid  up  for 
use  annually  among  copes  and  chasubles 
of  many  colours  and  devices ;  and  that  the 
presence  of  these  determined  for  the  ready- 
witted  poet  the  precise  form  of  his  pastoral. 
Braga,  indeed,  says  casually  that  the 
uncles  came  in  dancing,  in  sheepskin  coats : 


AND     MONOGRAPHS 


11 


Not  in 
church 


Costumes 


II 


12 

THE     PLAY    OF    THE 

Dance 
Rubrics 

Isaiah,  Moses  and  Abraham  danced  in  the 
auto  with   Solomon,   in   chacota,   all    four 
singing  de  folia  a  cantiga  seguint,  as  shep- 
herds in  mountain  dress:10    but  I  cannot 
find  this  in  any  edition.     The  rubric  does 
state,  earlier,   "entra  Erutea,  Peresica,  y 
Cimeria  em  chacota,  ellas  a  maneira  de 
labradoras."     This  means  almost  certainly 
that  they  bear  some  sign  of  their   rustic 
occupations,  like  figures  in  the  Calendars  of 
Books  of  Hours,  basket  or  hoe  or  milk-pail ; 
but  if  they  are  not  recognizable  as  sibyls  by 
their  dress,  how  is  the  audience  to  know 
them?     Of  Solomon  and  the  prophets  the 
same  is  true.     The  rubrics,  in  any  case,  are 
not  by  Gil  Vicente  nor  yet  contemporary. 
The  earliest  edition  existing  is  of   1562: 
there  is  vague  rumour  of  one  put  out  by 
Vicente's  son  in  1557,  but  the  poet  is  be- 
lieved to  have  died,   very  old,   in    1537. 
The  rubrics  have  entirely  the  traditional 
aspect:   a  son  is  setting  down  his  memory 
of  what  his  father  told  him,  long  since,  of 
things  in  that  father's  youth.     They  are 
important,  but  not  impeccable:   Theofilo 
Braga   long   ago   pointed   out   that   they 

II 

BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 

I  I v-»i    ■■■    I    i  v-/  " 


\ 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 

13 

mistake   the   chamber   and   the   presence 
where    the    first    performance    occurred: 
and  A.  Braamcamp  Freire  shows  that  the 
convent  of  Enexobregas  was  not  founded 
till   1509,  so  that  the  Play  of  the  Sibyl 
cannot  have  been  acted  there  in   1503; 
and  of  the  Play  of  the  Four  Seasons,  that 
place  and  date  are  similarly  irreconcilable. 
They    must    be    taken    with    discretion. 
Given  the  text,  the  only  way  to  identify 
prophets    and   sibyls   seems    to   be    their 
traditional  dress. 

These  costumes,  indeed,  were  both  char- 
acteristic and  important.      When  in  the 
same  decade   (1499-1507),   Perugino  was 
decorating  the   Cambio   at   Perugia   with 
symbolic  figures  of  heroes  and  sages  of 
antiquity,  prophets  and  sibyls,  he  tricked 
them  out,  all,  in  fantastic  costumes  from  a 
recent    mumming.      The    Vergos   family, 
working  on  the  great  retable  of  Granollers 
(1499-1502),  set  similar  prophets  in  splen- 
did courtly  vesture  on  the  guardapolvo,  as 
the  painters  before  them  had  done  for  more 
than  a  century,  borrowing  them  always 
from   the   Christmas    Office.      M.    Emile 

sometimes 
in  error 

Costumes 
characteris- 
tic 

Perugino 
Verg6s 

AND     MONOGRAPHS 

II 

14 

THE     PLAY    OF     THE 

Baccio 

Baldini 

Costumes 
strange 

Male11  has  traced  the  dress  of  prophets  and 
sibyls  alike  in  the  set  of  engravings  at- 
tributed to  Baccio  Baldini,  to  a  Mystery 
of  Feo  Belcari's  that  was  represented  in 
Florence  about  1490.  The  costumes  were 
current  coin. 

As  far  back  as  the  figure  of  Sibylla  can 
be  made  out,  in  the  cathedral  play  of 
Rouen,  her  dress  is  characteristic:12  "coro- 
nata  et  muliebri  habitu  ornata."  In  the 
Mystery  of  Revello,13  the  dress  of  the  sibyls 
is  prescribed  elaborately  as  that  of  the 
prophets.  The  authoritative  word  on  the 
subject  is  M.  Male's: 

"Les  costumes  extraordinaires  dont  les 
artistes  du  XVme  siecle  revetent  les 
prophetes  sont  des  costumes  de  theatre. 
Jeremie,  Ezechiel,  qui  au  XIVme  siecle  ne 
portent  encore  qu'un  simple  tunique  et  le 
petit  bonnet  des  Juifs,  sont  maintenant 
coiffes  de  hauts  chapeaux  aux  bords  re- 
trousses,  d'ou  pendent  des  chaines  de 
pedes.  lis  ont  des  riches  fourrures,  des 
ceintures  d'orfevrerie,  des  bourses  a.  glands. 
Un  si  bizarre  accoutrement,  qui  echappe 
en  partie  aux  lois  de  la  mode,  n'a  pu  etre 

II 

BRYN     MAWR     NOTES 

SIBYL    CASSANDRA 


imagine  que  pour  un  defile  solennel,  pour 
une  'montre.'  Ces  vieillards  magnifiques 
devaient  eveiller  l'idee  d'une  mysterieuse 
antiquite."14 

Conversely,  the  costume  thus  known  will 
identify  the  figures  on  the  stage  as  readily 
as  that  of  Harlequin  and  Columbine.  Not 
now  do  we  need  to  prove  the  reciprocal 
debt  of  the  Mysteries  and  plastic  art  or 
pictorial. 

A  suggestive  parallel,  perhaps,  to  this 
invention  of  Gil  Vicente's,  in  its  retention 
of  themes  dear  to  the  Middle  Age,  may  be 
found  in  the  inlaid  marble  pavement  of  the 
cathedral  of  Siena.  The  Renaissance  is 
there,  but  the  Middle  Age  is  not  abolished. 
Down  the  nave,  in  the  inlay  of  black  and 
white  marble  placed  there  by  Sienese 
artists  of  the  Quattrocento,  you  find  not 
only  parables,  the  Virtues  and  the  Scrip- 
ture heroes,  as  they  were  carved  in  the 
French  cathedrals,  but  Fortune's  Wheel, 
and  the  Seven  Ages  of  Man,  the  Emperor 
on  his  throne,  King  David  among  his 
musicians,  Hermes  Trismegistus,  the  Isle  of 
Fortune  as  Pinturicchio  designed  it  in  1504, 


15 


AND     MONOGRAPHS 


Mysteries 
and  the 
arts 


A  plastic 
parallel 


The 

Pavement 
of  Siena 


II 


16 


Ten  sibyls 


The  role 
of  Sibylla 


Toledo 


II 


THE     PLAY    OF    THE 


and  the  Ten  Sibyls  as  they  were  placed 
under  the  rectorship  of  Alberto  Aringhelli 
(1482)  himself  a  knight  of  Rhodes  and  of 
S.  John  of  Jerusalem.15  So  Dante,  pacing 
this  pavement,  would  read  all  the  book  of  it. 
It  is  plain,  then,  when  Gil  Vicente  wrote 
the  Christmas  Mystery  in  1503  and  used 
the  costumes  that  were  at  hand,  while  he 
was  devising,  in  the  pastoral  comedy  of 
the  opening  Renaissance — 

Mui  novas  invencoes,  d'estilo  mui  elo- 
quente — 

yet  he  was  employing  matter  consecrated 
by  long  use  in  the  liturgical  drama  of  the 
Middle  Age.  It  is  desirable  to  consider  for 
a  moment  the  role  of  Sibylla  in  the  medi- 
aeval mysteries. 

The  French  Benedictines,  when  they  re- 
vised the  Office  at  Toledo  in  the  eleventh 
century,  introduced  into  it  the  scene  or 
office  of  the  shepherds,  and  the  sibyl  of 
Christmas  Eve.  These  pieces  were  trans- 
lated out  of  Latin  into  Spanish  in  the 
thirteenth.  This  statement  rests  on  the 
authority  of  an  eighteenth -century  arch- 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 


bishop  of  Santiago,  Fernando  Vallejo,  and 
a  historical  memoir  that  he  composed  while 
still  a  Canon  of  Toledo,  transcribing  therein 
both  the  Latin  and  the  Romance  versions. 
The  document  is  still  imprinted,  it  has 
been  mislaid,  and  I  take  the  mention 
from  Cafiete16  who  knew  it.  The  business 
of  the  sibyl  was  to  reason  of  judgement  to 
come.  Sepet  has  printed  the  Augustinian 
sermon  which  entered  into  the  Christmas 
lessons,  and  included  the  twenty-seven 
lines  of  the  sibylline  verse.17  From  that 
must  be  derived  the  Toledan  version,  like 
those  of  S.  Martial  de  Limoges  and 
Rouen.  The  Spanish  compositions  seem 
to  have  been  real  plays.  It  were  a  good 
work  to  print  this  MS.,  if  it  can  be  found  by 
searching  the  archives. 

Nor  is  this  all  known  of  Spanish  use, 
little  though  we  know  of  Spain.  In  the 
Valencian  Breviary  of  1464  Villanueva18 
found  that  the  sermon  just  referred 
to  was  read  at  Christmas  matins,  and 
sixty  years  later  the  prophecies  were 
given  in  a  semi-dramatic  form,  the  sibyl 
"having  to  appear  in  the  pulpit  dressed  as 


AND     MONOGRAPHS 


YJ 


17 


A  lost 
treasure 
in  Toledo 


Valencia 


II 


J 


18 

THE     PLAY     OF    THE 

Tarragona 
Mallorca 

a  woman."     This  is  the  hour — the  Christ- 
mas midnight — when  Gil  Vicente's  piece 
was  played.     Writing  from  Tarragona,  the 
learned  old  Dominican  notes  that  in  the 
sixteenth  century  "on  Christmas  Eve  they 
had  the  sibyl,  as  I  said  in  Valencia,  though 
perhaps  here  there  was  something  more 
like  a  play  or  comedy.     From  that  might 
arise  the  use  of  villancicos  on  that  night, 
which  still  persists  in  many  cathedrals." 
A  villancico  is  not  precisely  a  carol,  but  it 
is  the  Spanish  equivalent,  and  Gil  Vicente's 
plays  each  wind  up  with  one.     In  1572  the 
Rite  of  the  Sibyl  on  Christmas  Eve  was 
abolished  in  the  diocese  of  Mallorca:   two 
years  later  the  Chapter  was  petitioned  for 
its  restoration,  and  Mila  y  Fontanals19  re- 
marked,  in   1880,  that   "it  subsisted  re- 
cently and  I  think  still  subsists."     J.  B. 
Trend  confirms  him  under  date  of  1921: 
a  choir  boy  still  goes  up  into  the  pulpit  in 
a  strange  garb.     The  sibyl's  speech  of  the 
Fifteen  Signs  of  Doomsday  figures  also  in 
Ordinaries  of  Barcelona  and  Urgell,  the 
former  a  MS.  of  1400  or  thereabouts,  the 
latter  printed  in  Leon  in  1545.     The  figure 

II 

BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 

SIBYL    CASSANDRA 


of  Sibylla,  then,  with  her  stately  beauty 
and  rich  and  symbolic  dress,  was  familiar 
and  expected  on  Christmas  Eve  at  the  date 
which  concerns  us. 

The  earliest  recorded  texts,  I  think,  are 
in  the  MS.  at  Toledo,  that  of  S.  Martial  of 
Limoges,20  and  the  Rouen  play  preserved  by 
Du  Cange:21  the  first  goes  back  to  the  elev- 
enth century,  the  second  perhaps  also,  the 
third  to  the  fourteenth:  one  is  Spanish,  one 
from  Southern  France,  one  is  Norman. 
The  liturgical  drama  lived  on,  indeed, 
everywhere,  and  starting  from  the  same 
point,  seems  to  run  parallel.  Every  detail 
recorded,  for  instance,  in  early  plays  pub- 
lished by  Du  Meril  corresponds  so  closely 
to  Spanish  use  that  it  seems  permissible  to 
suppose  a  fairly  complete  likeness.  The 
Office  of  the  Shepherds  according  to  the  use 
of  Rouen  is  taken  from  MSS.  .of  the  four- 
teenth and  fifteenth  century:  the  Office  of 
the  Kings  at  Limoges  goes  back  at  least  as 
far.22  In  the  former  the  creche  is  arranged 
behind  the  altar  with  an  image  of  S.  Mary 
therein;  a  boy  climbs  up  on  the  rood- 
screen   (or  perhaps  on  what  is  called  in 


19 


AND     MONOGRAPHS 


French  and 

Spanish 

parallel 


II 


20 


Played 
in  church 


Processions 

and  stations 


THE     PLAY    OF    THE 


Ritual 
uses 


Spanish  incorrectly  the  trascoro,  the  back 
of  the  sanctuary  enclosure)  to  simulate  the 
angel,  and  the  shepherds  come  in  through 
the  choir :  in  the  second,  three  of  the  choir 
come,  suitably  vested,  through  the  great 
door  of  the  choir,  after  the  offertory,  to 
make  the  offerings  of  the  Kings.23  A 
third,  the  Office  of  the  Star  according  to  the 
use  of  Rouen,2i  is  still  more  interesting  from 
the  liturgical  and  ecclesiological  point  of 
view,  with  its  processions  and  stations,  in 
aisles  and  nave,  by  altars  and  chapels. 
Only  those  perhaps  may  figure  it  who  know 
the  splendours  of  the  modern  use  at  Toledo, 
however  that  be  shorn  of  its  elder  glories. 
But,  indeed  to  realize  how  inevitable,  how 
reverent,  how  little  removed  from  the 
ordinary  course  of  festal  ceremonies  was  the 
iiturgical  drama  and  the  Mystery  that  grew 
out  of  it,  one  has  only  to  recall  the  rit- 
ual at  Seville  or  Burgos,  Compostella  or 
Cuenca,  and  before  all,  at  the  primatial 
church  of  Toledo,  with  its  incessant  pass- 
ings between  the  sanctuary  and  the  coro, 
the  priests  and  the  chapter;  all  the  missions 
and  messages;  the  acolytes  who  go  accom- 


II 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


Y 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 

21 

panied,  to  carry  the  Kiss  of  Peace,  the 
canons  who  come  up,  yet  more  accom- 
panied, to  honour  the  moment  of  Con- 
secration, or  the  interminable  and  impres- 
sive Offertory  on  great  days  when  in  due 
state  and  rank,  their  twenty  or  more  copes 
stiffened  with  embroidery,  their  yard-long 
and    two-yard   trains    trailing   scarlet    or 
violet,  the  entire  Chapter  come  up  before 
the  pontiff  enthroned  in  the  very   altar 
front,  to  kiss  his  gloved  hand  and  throw 
into  a  silver  dish  or  a  golden  salver  tinkling 
silver    tokens    coined    expressly    for    the 
cathedral  centuries  ago.     Indeed  the  Office 
of  Holy  Week  at  Toledo  still  keeps  the 
dramatic  rendering  of  the  daily  Gospels, 
and  probably  other  places  in  Spain  as  well. 
I  am  not  aware  if  anything  is  known  of 
the  early  liturgical  drama  in  Portugal,  but 
in  the  days  of  the  so-called  Benedictine 
reformation  of  the  Spanish  church,  which 
are  the  days  of  King  Alfonso  and  Queen 
Constance  and  their  monks  fetched  from 
Cluny,  Portugal  was  still  Spain.     Prince 
Henry  the  husband  of  Teresa  of  Portugal 
was  himself  a  Burgundian,  and  at  Braga 

Still  in 
Spain 

Portugal 
identical 

AND     MONOGRAPHS 

II 

> 


\ 


L 


22 

THE     PLAY     OF     THE 

Processtis 

prophe- 

torum 

The 

miniature 
and  the 
theatre 

and  Toledo  the  reforms  will  have  been 
alike  and  the  innovations  identical. 

The  Christmas  play,  at  the  outset,  was 
exclusively  concerned  with  prophecy:  it 
rehearsed  the  promise,  rejoicing  in  the  ful- 
filment. 

Plenty  of  texts  are  accessible  in  France. 
In  a  MS.  of  the  eleventh  century  from 
Limoges,  the  Mystery  of  the  Wise  and  Foolish 
Virgins,2^  which  falls  in  Advent,  is  im- 
mediately followed  by  another  which  Du 
Meril  calls  the  Mystery  of  the  Prophets™  and 
believes  was  played  on  Christmas  Eve. 
He  cites  in  evidence  a  curious  passage  from 
Durandus'  Rationale:  on  the  other  hand, 
there  was  a  procession  of  Prophets  at 
Rouen  in  the  fourteenth  century — wherein 
marched  Balaam's  ass — on  the  Feast  of  the 
Circumcision.27  It  falls  in  any  case  within 
the  Christmas  season. 

Here  at  Limoges  the  Precentor,  calling 
upon  the  Jews  and  the  Gentiles,  evokes  the 
prophets  in  turn,  and  sets  them,  to  pro- 
phesy, in  such  a  chair  as  Andre  Beauneveu 
and  Jacquemart  de  Hesdin  employed, 
painting    prophets    in    the    Psalters    and 

II 

BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 

^ 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 

23 

Books  of  Hours  for  the  Duke  of  Berry- 
three  centuries  and  more  thereafter.    They 
advance   in  turn:    Israel  speaks,   Moses, 
Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Daniel,  Habakkuk,  Da- 
vid and  Simeon,  Elizabeth  and  the  Baptist, 
Virgil  and  Nebuchadnezzar  and  then  Sibyl- 
la.   Her  speech  is  all  of  Judgement  to  come : 

Judicii  signum:   tellus  sudore  madescet; 
Et  coelo  rex  adveniet  per  saecla  futurus, 
Silicet    in    carne    praesens    ut    judicet 
orbem.2S 

A  thirteenth-century  Mystery  of  the  Na- 
tivity, taken  from  a.  MS.  at  Munich,  recog- 
nizes the  debt  to  S.  Augustine  by  enthron- 
ing him  "in  fronte  ecclesiae,"  on  his  right 
stand  Isaiah,  Daniel  and  other  prophets, 
on    his    left    "Archisynagogum    et    suos 
Judeos."      Isaiah  has  a  four-line  song  with 
two    antiphons    to    follow;     Daniel    two 
stanzas   with   pretensions   to   poetry   and 
after  another  antiphon,  "tertio  loco  Sibilla 
gesticulose     procedat,     quae     inspiciendo 
stallam,    cum.  gestu   mobili   canet":    the 
four  stanzas  of  her  song  deal  chiefly  with 
the  Virgin  mother,  but  the  antiphon  to  it 

Limoges 

South 
Germany 

AND     MONOGRAPHS 

II 

: 


24 


Northern 
France 


Out  of 
God's  grace 


II 


THE     PLAY    OF     THE 


is,  "Judicii  signum:  tellus  .  .  ."  This 
will  be  simply  the  opening  triplet  of  the 
poem,  as  in  the  play  foregoing.  Aaron  and 
Balaam  follow  her  and  the  next  incident  is 
a  long  debate  between  S.  Augustine .  and 
Archisynagogus,  the  prophets  sustaining 
the  former  in  a  quotation  from  S.  Bernard's 
Laetabundus: 

Si  non  suis  vatibus 
credat  vel  gentilibus, 
Sibyllinis  versibus 

Haec  praedicta.29 

From  the  Play  of  the  Prophets  incor- 
porated in  the  Mystery  of  Adam,  which  is 
attributed  to  the  twelfth  century,30  Sibylla 
is  omitted,  the  piece  stopping  with  Nebu- 
chadnezzar's recitation  of  the  Fifteen 
Tokens  of  Doomsday.  That  was  a  famil- 
iar mediaeval  substitute  for  the  acrostic 
lines,  and  by  the  time  it  was  finished  the 
audience  would  have  had  enough. 

So  much  for  the  importance  of  the  sibyl 
in  the  Mystery  while  it  was  played  before 
the  altar.  She  is  there  to  testify.  She  is 
not  however  an  invariable  figure,  and  when 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 


the  drama  comes  out  of  God's  grace  into 
the  warm  sun,  she  is  hardly  seen.  The 
pastorals  of  Lucas  Fernandez  and  his  fel- 
lows know  her  not.  In  the  nirity-five 
Mysteries  of  the  Madrid  codex,  which  in- 
clude Scripture  and  dogma  equally,  she  is 
not  named.  But  she  lives  on  in  folk-lore, 
and  the  sibyls  hold  their  place  in  art  and 
even  gain  ground  with  the  rising  tide  of 
humanism. 

The  MS.  of  the  Passion  of  Revello,31 
though  copied  as  late  as  1490,  supplies  an 
intermediate  form  between  the  earlier  and 
the  later  mysteries.  At  the  outset  there  is 
a  prologue  of  prophecy:  twelve  sibyls 
speak  and  twelve  prophets,  and  Balaam 
to  boot  "who  is  a  false  prophet."  A  long 
Latin  rubric  gives  the  names  of  the  sibyls, 
their  age,  their  bearing  and  action,  and  the 
colour  of  their  garments  and  their  orna- 
ments :  some  such  passage,  it  would  seem, 
as  Filippo  Barbieri  published  in  1481.32 
But  in  the  scene  of  the  Annunciation  pro- 
phets and  sibyls  return  and  rehearse  their 
parts  again.  Just  about  contemporary  is 
the  play  of  the  Annunication  by  Feo  Bel- 


AND     MONOGRAPHS 


25 


l« 


into  the 
warm  sun 


II 


26 


Feo  Belcari 

and 

Gil  Vicente 


Twenty 
prophets 
ten  sibyls 


THE     PLAY     OF     THE 


II 


cari,33  which  opens  by  the  angel  who  acts 
as  Prologue  calling  on  the  prophets  to 
testify,  and  the  list  is  this:  "Noe,  Jacob, 
Eritrea  sibilla,  Moise,  Giosue,  Sofonia 
sibilla,  Samuel,  David,  Persica,  Elia, 
Eliseo,  Pontica  sibilla,  Malachia,  Amos, 
Samia  sibilla,  Isaiah,  Giona,  Michea  sibilla, 
Jeremia,  Ezechiel,  Osea  sibilla,  Daniello, 
Abachuch,  Cumana  sibilla,  Egea,  Abias, 
Tiburtina  sibilla,  Nau,  Joel,  Zaccheria"; 
after  this  the  play  of  the  Annunciation 
proceeds  rapidly  to  a  ritual  conclusion. 
Here  every  third  speaker  seems  to  be  a 
sibyl:  and  the  sum  of  them  is  ten.  D'An- 
cona  adds  that  it  seems  desirable  to  sub- 
join a  sample  of  another  version  of  the  same 
play  from  another  codex,  in  which  the 
part  of  the  prophets  is  much  reduced  and 
only  Isaiah,  Daniel,  David  and  eight  sibyls 
speak.  Therewith  he  begins  his  quotation 
at  the  Proces  du  Paradis,  and  the  prologue 
is  not  in  print.  In  the  earlier  version 
printed,  by  my  count  there  are  only  six 
real  sibyls,  and  they  are  addressed  with 
some  relevance  to  their  nature  and  func- 
tion:   the  prophets  Zephaniah   (Sofonia), 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


k 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 

27 

Michah,    and   Hosea  (Zach arias  probably 
also)  are  dressed  in  sibyl's  costume,  and 
Michah  gets  in  addition  a  feminine  ad- 
jective;  and  the  other  figures  are  arrayed 
in  this  mixed  assembly  for  varied  reasons, 
Joshua,  for  instance,  being  one  of  the  Nine 
Worthies  and  a  splendid  figure  easy  to 
recognize.     It  would  seem,  in  short,  that 
this   play   afforded    an    exact  parallel  to 
Gil  Vicente's. 

In  a   Christmas   play   of  the   Nativity 
found  in  the  same  quattrocento  Italian  col- 
lection34 the  prophecies  are  introduced  with 
more  art:   when  Herod  summons  his  wise 
men  to  council,  they  cite,  the  first  Isaiah, 
the  second  the  Tiburtine  and  the  third  the 
Erythraean   sibyl.      At   the   feast    of    S. 
Felice  in  1547  they  played  in  Florence  an 
Annunciation  with  the  sibyl  who  prophe- 
sied and  showed  to  Octavian  the  humanity 
of  the1  Son  of  God.35    At  Sessa,  two  years 
later,  for  Corpus  Christi  "at  the  nuncia- 
ture were  played  the  twelve  sibyls  that 
each  spoke  of  the  coming  of  Christ  and  of 
the  incarnation,  with  many  fair  mysteries: 
certes  it  was  a  fair  thing  to  see."36     This 

The  Nine 
Worthies 

In 
16th 
century 
Florence 

Sibyl  on  the 
ambo  there, 
13th  cen- 
tury 

AND     MONOGRAPHS 

.        II 

J 


28 


In  the 
Kingdom 
of  Naples 


France 
at  the 
Renaissance 


THE     PLAY    OF     THE 


II 


was  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples  and  would 
seem  nearer  to  a  Spanish  auto.  In  Florence 
in  1566  there  was  a  fine  play37  "besides 
many  prophets  and  sibyls  that  .  .  .  sing- 
ing in  that  simple  and  ancient  mode  pre- 
dicted the  coming  of  Our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  a  Paradise  appeared."  So 
much  must  suffice  for  the  Italian  plays. 

In  France  the  greatest  piece,  the  Mys- 
tere  du  Vieil  Testament,38  ends  with  Octa- 
vian  and  the  sibyl.  uCy  commence  le 
Mistere  de  Octavien  et  de  sibille  Tiburtine, 
touchant  la  conception,  et  autres  sibilles." 
The  play  is  long  and  dull,  the  author  does 
not  know  what  to  do  with  the  statue  com- 
manded of  the  Emperor,  though  the  author 
of  the  Chester  Mysteries  could  have  told 
him;  finally,  when  Tiburtina  has  with- 
drawn, the  twelve  sibyls  appear  without 
looking  at  each  other,  raising  their  eyes  to 
heaven  as  though  foretelling.  This  play 
was  printed  by  Pierre  Le  Dru  at  some 
time  before  1542:  the  Dit  des  Douze 
Sibylles  thus  introduced  was  as  popular  as 
the  Fifteen  Tokens  of  Doomsday  had  been : 
it  figured  about  1488  in  the  borders  of  the 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 

29 

great  Hours  of  Verard,  in  the  Hours  of 
Louis  de  Laval  before  1489,  and  in  the 
Hours  of  Simon  Vostre  in   1508.39     The 
formula  is  fixed,  by  now:    it  is  to  be  re- 
ferred to  Barbieri,  with  some  direct  refer- 
ence to  Lactantius. 

The  Story  of  the  Emperor  and  the  Sibyl 
was  one  of  the  marvels  of  the  city  of 
Rome:40     John   of    Salisbury   and   Ralph 
Higden  related  it.     It  is  surprising  that  the 
Cursor   Mundi   knew   nothing   about   the 
Tiburtine  sibyl  or  the  founding  of  Ara- 
coeli.     What  he  does  know  is  inserted  here 
and  there  into  Old  Testament  chronology.41 
The  Persian  sibyl  was  the  first; 

Than  was  a  sibyl  o'Lybie 
And  Apollo  with  his  melodie. 

The  Delphic  sibyl  foretold  the  Trojan 
war:    that   of   Babylon   was   the   fourth. 
This  is  flotsam  and  jetsam  of  all  the  ages, 
with    a   faint   half -consciousness   of    Cas- 
sandra and  the  Pythia  and  the  struggle  for 
supremacy  at  Delphi,42  rather  astonishing, 
washing  up  there  on  the  north  of  England. 
The  fifth  sibyl  arrives  in  the  history  of 

Mirahilia 

Urbis 

Romae 

Apollo  and 
the  sibyl  in 
conjunction 

Cursor 
Mundi 

AND     MONOGRAPHS 

II 

1 


30 


So  Sibyl  and 
Solomon 
in  the 
frontispiece 


The 

legend  of 
the  Three 
Rods 


The  Queen 
of  Sheba 


II 


THE     PLAY     OF     THE 


Maximilla,  which  is  a  part  of  the  story  of 
Holy  Cross;  the  Cursor  relates  how  the 
beam  hewn  from  King  Solomon's  forests 
lay  across  the  brook — 

Till  after  long  and  many  a  day 
The  sibyl  came  from  far  away 
To  see  and  speak  with  Solomon. 
When  to  the  city  she  had  come, 
By  the  beam  laid  in  her  way, — 

she  pulled  off  her  shoes  and  lifted  her 
skirt  and  waded  the  brook  with  many 
prophecies  of  the  Tree  and  also  of  Dooms- 
day. 

When  the  sibyl  and  the  king 
Had  thus  disputed  of  many  a  thing 
The  king  gave  her  gifts  full  fair 
And  so  homeward  she  did  fare, 
But  the  tree,  as  I  heard  say, 
There  it  lay,  many  a  day. 

She  is  here,  of  course,  neither  more  nor 
less  than  the  Queen  of  Sheba.  It  remains 
to  add  that  the  sixth  sibyl,  according  to  the 
Cursor,  occurs  in  the  time  of  many  prophets, 
Isaiah,    Joel,    Hosea,    Jonah    and   others, 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 

31 

towards  the  close  of  the  Fourth  Age  of  the 
World. 

It    was    convenient    to    consider    the 
Cursor  Mundi  before  the  English  Miracle 
plays :  these  are  mostly  undated,  but  none 
can    be    earlier    than    the    institution    of 
Corpus    Christi    in    1264.       The    earliest 
plausible  suggestion  for  the  Townley  plays 
is  1410,  and  the  Chester  plays  were  copied 
and  revised  as  late  as  1591-1606.     In  the 
former    the    sibyl    prophesies    Doomsday 
among   the    prophets.43      In    the    latter44 
occurs  a  long  scene  of  Octavian,  during 
which  the  Expositor  refers  to  "three  suns 
in  the  firmament  that  wonderly  together 
went"  with  a  faint  gleam  of  the  dream  of 
the  Hundred   Suns.      These    plays    illus- 
trate remarkably  the  process  of  incorporat- 
ing the  old  Processus  Prophetorum  of  the 
liturgical  drama,  or  such  bits  of  it  as  sur- 
vived:   in  the  Townley  plays  it  follows 
Jacob    and    precedes    Pharaoh:     in    the 
Chester    series    the    prophets    are    inter- 
polated into  Balaam  and  Balaak,  and  the 
sibyl  and  the  Emperor  into  the  Nativity. 
In  the  Limoges  MS.,  by  the  way,  of  the 

English 
Corpus 
Christi 
Plays 

Processus 
prophe- 
torum 
broken  up 
and  fitted  ir, 

AND     MONOGRAPHS 

II 

N 


J 


32 


Pageants 

at 

Coventry 


Rich  and 

traditional 

dress 


II 


THE     PLAY    OF     THE 


Advent  play  of  the  Foolish  Virgins,  with 
the  prophet  play  that  followed,  this  proc- 
ess has  begun:  they  are  attached  rather 
cleverly  to  an  Easter  play.45  In  all  these 
cases  we  see  the  passing  of  the  original 
drama,  till  it  is  adapted  and  transformed 
out  of  recognition. 

The  English  plays  afford  also  a  parallel 
case  of  the  costume  determining  the  theme 
and  identifying  the  figures.  There  is  a 
record  at  Coventry  of  pageants  performed 
for  the  reception  of  royalty  during  the 
fifteenth  century.46  These  were  very  slight 
dramatic  performances,  hardly  more  than 
costumed  speeches.  When  Queen  Mar- 
garet came  to  Coventry  in  1456  there  were 
erected  and  placed,  at  different  points,  with 
set  speeches,  a  Jesse  with  two  prophets,  S. 
Edward  and  S.  John,  the  Nine  Worthies, 
and  S.  Margaret.  When  Prince  Edward 
came  in  1474,  the  townsfolk  had  out  King 
Richard,  the  three  Patriarchs  and  Jacob's 
twelve  sons,  King  Edward,  Three  Prophets, 
the  Three  Kings  of  Cologne,  and  S.  George. 
For  Prince  Arthur  they  had  only  the  Nine 
Worthies,  the  Queen  of  Fortune,  and  S. 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


k 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 


33 


George.  Now  the  prophets  and  kings  at 
least  are  recognizable  chiefly  by  their 
traditional  dress,  and  supply  a  fair  plebeian 
parallel  to  Gil  Vicente's  use. 

Now  that  prophets  and  sibyls  are  ac- 
counted for  in  the  Play  of  the  Sibyl  Cas- 
sandra, what  has  Solomon  to  do  there?  If 
the  others  come  direct  in  inheritance  from 
the  liturgical  drama,  yet  though  Abraham 
and  Aaron,  Balaam  and  the  Baptist,  Virgil 
and  Nebuchadnezzar  all  figure  in  the  pro- 
cession and  David  is  always  there,  still  I 
know  of  no  play  which  admits  Solomon. 
I  think  he  is  drawn  hither  in  the  wake  of 
Sibylla,  who  is  the  Queen  of  Sheba:  Solo- 
mon and  Saba  stand  together  on  church 
doorways. 

In  the  story  of  Holy  Cross  the  Queen  of 
the  South  has  the  gift  of  prophecy,  as  ap- 
peared in  Cursor  Mundi.  She  prophesied 
the  redemption,  and  there  is  a  Spanish 
auto  on  this  theme  called  El  Arbol  del 
Mejor  Fruto:  Calderon  collaborated  in  the 
writing  and  recast  his  share  later  as  La 
Sibilla  del  Oriented  Saba  here  is  a  true 
Pythoness,  she  falls  into  trances,  and  she 


AND     MONOGRAPHS 


Solomon 


and  Sheba 


So  Isidore 
calls  her 


II 


34 


in  Gothic 
carving 


at  Toulouse 


Laon 


Auxerre 


II 


THE     PLAY     OF     THE 


recognizes  the  Tree  of  our  Salvation,  she 
tests  Solomon  with  the  artificial  flower,  and 
she  makes  him  fall  in  love  with  her:  she 
is  Queen  of  Ethiopia  which  lies  somewhere 
in  the  East,  and  she  is  black  but  comely, 
like  the  Shunamite  in  Canticles  and  the 
Lybian  sibyl  of  Guidoccio  Cozzarelli  in 
Siena  cathedral.  Here  then  in  the  Penin- 
sula we  touch  another  strain  of  popular 
lore  again. 

The  early  Gothic  carvers  knew  the  sibyl, 
and  they  present  her  often  with  a  con- 
sciousness of  archaism,  and  sometimes  it  is 
impossible  to  know  whether  a  figure  be 
meant  for  Sibylla  or  for  Saba.  Belike  they 
did  not  well  know  themselves.  In  Tou- 
louse Museum  she  is  preserved  with  the 
prophets,  among  the  earliest  sculptures 
from  ruined  doorways.  At  Laon  she  is 
carved  in  the  archivolt  of  the  north-western 
doorway,  and  the  opening  words  of  her 
prophecy  are  on  the  stone  behind,  and  she 
is  probably  Erythraea.  At  Auxerre  she 
figures  within,  on  the  choir-enclosure,  and 
a  crowned  head  may  be  seen  beside,  and  I 
think  she  is  Tiburtina.48     In  1253  Thomas 


BRY'N     MAWR    NOTES 


C 


SIBYL     CASSANDRA 


of  Celano  had  written  "  Teste  David  cum 
Sibilla."  Before  the  century  was  over 
Erwin  of  Steinbach  had  arrayed  the  ordi- 
nance for  the  western  doors  of  the  cathedral 
of  Strasburg,  much  as  the  Limoges  drama 
presented  the  same  pageant.  The  northern 
side  is  devoted  to  the  old  Romanesque 
theme  of  the  Psychomachy:  the  southern, 
to  the  Wise  and  Foolish  Virgins,  headed 
by  the  Spouse  and  the  Tempter  respec- 
tively. On  the  central  portal  stand  the 
prophets  with  Solomon  and  Sibylla,  pre- 
cisely, except  for  number,  as  they  return 
two  and  a  quarter  centuries  later  in  Gil 
Vicente's  auto.  For  his  own  purpose,  the 
Portuguese  poet  has  selected  more  sibyls. 
At  Strasburg  the  presence  of  Solomon  is 
not  fortuitous:  he  is  the  Wise  Man  as  she 
is  the  Wise  Woman:  with  the  same  inten- 
tion they  had  been  selected  for  the  doorway 
at  Amiens. 

At  Orvieto,  the  second  buttress  is  carved 
with  a  Tree  of  the  Prophets,  mounting  in 
ascent  from  Abraham,  as  the  third  carries 
a  Tree  of  Jesse:  the  motive,  so  far  as  I 
know,  is  unique,  though  it  was  copied  once 


AND     MONOGRAPHS 


35 


The  Sibyl 
at  Freiburg 
also 


Strasburg 


Master 
Benedetto 
carved  her 
so  at  Parma 
12th 
century 


Amiens 


II 


36 


Orvieto 


Pulpits 


THE     PLAY    OF    THE 


in  the  chapel  of  Pedralbes  by  the  son  of 
Ferrer  Bassa.49     Here  on  the  cathedral  the 
sibyl  stands  among  the  prophets :  the  work 
is  Sienese  and  was  executed  at  some  time 
between  1310,  when  Lorenzo  Maitani  began 
the  facade,  and  1347,  when  Andrea  Pisano 
took  it  over  for  two  years.     Those  workmen 
who  went  from  Siena  to  serve  the  Duke 
of  Berry,  could  tell  their  mates  of  this,  as 
of  the  great  figures  made  by  the  Pisan  for 
the  outside  of  the  cathedral  and  for  the  pul- 
pit in  Siena.    There  were  sibyls  on  the  Pisan 
pulpit,  and  I  believe  the  exquisite  figure  at 
Siena  called  a  Virtue,  seated  and  crowned 
and  prompted  by  an  angel,  and  bearing  a 
scroll  long  since  illegible,  was  set  to  repre- 
sent the  Wise  Woman  like  her  sisters  here 
and  at  Pistoja.     The    sculptor  Peregrino 
had  already  set  the  sibyl  with  three  pro- 
phets  in  the   spandrels   of  the   ambo  at 
Sessa,  in  the  early  days  of  Bishop  Pan- 
dolfo  (1224-1259).     Younger  by  two  cen- 
turies, two  sibyls,  with  David  and  Solomon, 
stand  facing  northward,  and  hidden  by  the 
cathedral  flank,  on  the  Campanile  of  Flor- 
ence.    Next  Ghiberti  modelled  the  heads 


II 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


^ 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 


of  prophets  and  sibyls  for  his  earliest  doors. 
Not  unmindful  of  this  a  century  and  a 
half  later,  the  great  silversmiths  of  Cuenca, 
the  Becerril  family,  set  prophets  and  sibyls 
on  the  upper  stage  of  the  custodia  they 
were  making  for  the  cathedral  there.50 

So,  far  to  the  west,  in  Spain,  at  Leon, 
among  the  multitudinous  figures  that  stand 
about  the  western  doors,  along  with  Church 
and  Synagogue,  Solomon  and  Saba,  waits 
the  sibyl,  a  little  apart.  She  smiles  at  Solo- 
mon ambiguously,  and  shows  her  scroll,  at 
Burgo  de  Osma.  With  Balaam  and  with 
Virgil  she  stands  by  the  tree  of  Jesse  in  the 
window  at  Chartres,  and  at  Soissons,  in  a 
Jesse  window,  there  was  a  pair  of  sibyls: 
perhaps  also  in  the  archivolt  of  the  north- 
western door  at  Notre  Dame  of  Paris. 
In  the  Psalter  of  Queen  Ingeborg,  at 
Chantilly,  she  stands  like  a  queen  crowned, 
and  testifies  "omina  cessabunt  tellus  con- 
fracta  peribit,"  Daniel,  Malachi,  and 
Aaron  keeping  her  company.51  In  the 
church  at  Bethlehem  Quaresimus  saw  the 
Erythraean  sibyl,  and  her  testimony  was, 
"E  coelo  rex  adveniet."    M.  Male  suggests 


37 


Both  of 
the  doors 
of  Ghibertl 
and  the 
Custodia  of 
Becerril 


Portals 
of  Spanish 
cathedrals 


In  the  West 


AND     MONOGRAPHS 


II 


__ 


- 


38 


In  the  East 


Mount 
Athos 


S.  Angelo 
in  Formis 


II 


THE     PLAY    OF    THE 


that  the  crusaders  carried  the  theme  to  the 
Holy  Land:  it  is  not  necessary  to  believe 
that  they  brought  it  back,  but  certainly 
they  found  it  there  installed. 

The  Wise  Sibyl  figures  after  the  pro- 
phets, in  the  Guide  to  Painting  that  Didron 
found  on  Mount  Athos,  and  in  company 
with  Balaam,  at  the  end  of  a  line  of  philoso- 
phers of  Greece  who  have  spoken  of  the 
Incarnation  of  Christ:  these  are,  to  wit, 
Apollonius,  Solon,  Thucydides,  Plutarch, 
Plato,  Aristotle,  Philo,  Sophocles,  Thoulis 
king  of  Egypt,  the  divine  Balaam,  and  the 
Wise  Sibyl.  Her  scroll  speaks  of  the  Judge : 
"There  will  come  from  heaven  an  eternal 
king,  who  will  judge  all  flesh  and  all  the 
universe.  From  a  virgin,  a  spotless  bride, 
the  only  son  of  God  should  come:  eternal, 
unfathomable,  the  only  Word  of  God. 
It  makes  the  heaven  shake  and  the  human 
soul  tremble."52 

The  earliest  known  appearance  of  the 
sibyl  in  painting  is  at  S.  Angelo  in  Formis, 
in  late  eleventh-century  frescoes.  She 
fills  the  farthest  spandrel  of  the  nave  arcade 
on  the  north  side.     David    and    Solomon 


BRYN     MAWR     NOTES 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 

39 

follow,  and  other    prophets.      Her   scroll 
bears  the  familiar  Judicii  signo.   ...     In 
the  twelfth  her  image  was  set  by   Solo- 
mon's, on  the  Baptistery  at  Parma. 

This  is  no  place  for  divagation  on  the 
sibyls    in    Renaissance    art;53     how     Fra 
Angelico  is  said  to  have  painted  one  in  S. 
Marco,  and  Ghirlandajo  has  one  in  SS. 
Trinita:    and  Andrea  del  Castagno  in  his 
Cumaean  Sibyl  forestalled  Michelangelo: 
how  the  last,  with  Raphael  and  Pintur- 
richio,  all  evoked  more  or  fewer  on  Roman 
ceilings  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  at 
Spello,  and  at  Tivoli,  had    set   them — so 
they  had  been  arrayed  in  the  fifteenth  in 
fresco  at  Amiens,  and  at  Avignon  in  the 
fourteenth,  and  on  panel  by  Herman  torn 
Ring  at  Augsburg,  and  at  Ulm  by  Jorg 
Syrlin.      There,   in  what  is   perhaps  the 
most  beautiful  plastic  work  of  the  German 
Renaissance,  nine  noble  sibyls  on  the  choir- 
stalls  on  one  side  correspond,  not  to  pro- 
phets as  in  the  windows  at  Auch,  but  to 
the  great  minds,   figures   of  the   antique 
genius,  Ptolemy,  Terence,  Cicero  and  the 
rest.      Attavante  degli   Attavanti  set  six 

Including 
the  Borgia 
apartments 

Finer  than 
Simone 
Fiorenti- 
no's  at 
Rimini  in 
the  Tempio 
Malates- 
tirio 

AND     MONOGRAPHS 

II 

40 


The  Sibyl 
and  the 
Emperor 


THE     PLAY    OF     THE 


So 

Cavazzola's 
mouldering 
in  a 

Veronese 
bye-street 


Queens' 
welcomes 


sibyls  around  the  title-page  of  Matthias 
Corvinus'  breviary. 

The  theme  of  the  Tiburtine  sibyl  and 
the  Emperor  is  as  dear  to  northern  painters 
as  it  was  persistent  in  northern  Mysteries : 
it  served  Roger  van  der  Weyden,  Dirck 
Bouts  and  Memling,  as  it  served  the 
illuminators  of  the  Very  Rich  Hours  and 
the  Grimani  Breviary.  The  finest  treat- 
ment, however,  is  that  of  Baldassare 
Peruzzi  in  the  church  of  Fontegiusta  at 
vSiena,  whose  long-necked  prophetess,  like 
a  disguised  princess,  still  reigns,  through 
ruin  and  restoration,  from  the  crumbling 
wall.  Curiously  enough,  the  church  has  a 
Spanish  association:  the  dusty  whale  bone's 
over  the  door  are  said  to  have  been  offered 
by  Christopher  Columbus.  As  for  the  little 
sibyls  among  the  innumerable  figures  of 
the  Capilla  Dorada,  in  Salamanca  New 
Cathedral,  they  testify  to  nothing  but  the 
insatiable  learning  and  indifferent  skill  of 
some  fifteenth-century  sculptor.54 

The  drama  revives  into  a  sort  of  after- 
glow, secular  in  all  but  name.  A  Mystery 
of  Sibyls  was  played  before  Anne  of  Brit- 


II 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 

41 

tany  when  she  entered  Tours  in  1491  ;55 
there  would  be  a  satisfaction  in  comparing 
it  with  those  played  before  Queen  Mar- 
garet in  Coventry  and  Queen  Lianor  in 
Portugal.      So,  the  first  figures  who  met 
Queen  Elizabeth  in  the  pageant  at  Kenil- 
worth  (1575)  were  the  ten  sibyls. 

It  is  not  possible  to  discuss  the  history 
of  the  sibyls  in  literature,56  excepting  to  in- 
dicate the  traditions  that  lay  to  hand  when 
Gil  Vicente  sat  down  to  write  his  Mystery. 
The  Erythraean  sibyl  was  the  eldest,  and 
she  lived  in  a  cave:    wandering  over  the 
earth    she    came    to    Delphi,    and    there 
Apollo,  apparently,  disputed  the  seat  with 
her  and  worsted  her.      A  faint  folk-lore 
memory  of  this  conflict  with  Apollo,  and  of 
the  old  wrong,  lives  on  in  the  occasional 
appearance  of  Cassandra  as  a  sibyl.57    "In 
the  popular  consciousness  Sibylla  remains  a 
prophetess  of  sad  truths,  pregnant  with  ill, 
as  she  remained  to  the  end  of  the  Middle 
Age."     One  Lycophron  of  Chalkis,  a  wit- 
less poet  of  the  end  of  the  third  century, 
composed  a  tragic  scene  in  which  Alex- 
andra (that  is,  Cassandra)  rehearses  all  the 

The  sibyl 

in 
literature 

The  struggle 
with  Apollo 

Cassandra 
a  sibyl 

AND     MONOGRAPHS 

11 




42 

THE     PLAY     OF     THE 

The 

Dream  of 
the 

Hundred 
Suns 

misery  that  shall  come  to  Troy  and  to 
Greeks  after  they  have  taken  Ilium.     The 
Christian    sibyl    had    appeared    in     the 
Shepherd  of  Hermas,  Lactantius  and  even 
Eusebius    giving   her    a   place.      To    the 
yearning  mysticism  of  these  centuries  she 
is  congenial,  and  the  Erythraean  sibyl  is  re- 
vived in  a  long  epigram  under  the  An- 
tonine  emperors.     Plenty  of  sibylline  ma- 
terial existed  at  Byzance,  and  Liutprand  of 
Cremona  stumbled  over  some  of  it. 

To  a  Greek  original  must  be  referred  the 
Roumanian  tale  of  the  Dream  of  the  Hun- 
dred  Suns   and  the   Slavonic  version   on 
which  it  rests.58     The  sibyl  is  the  daughter 
of  David,  by  rather  a  gross  device  of  pure 
folk-tale,   born  without   mother   from   an 
egg  laid  by  a  goose:   this  makes  her,  as  in 
some  Italian  folk-lore,  the  sister  of  Solo- 
mon.    She  grew  up  mighty  and  wise  and 
came  to  be  ruler  of  Rome  and  she  hoped 
that  from  her  Christ  should  be  born  and 
kept  her  virginity  for  fifty  years,   till  a 
hundred  of  her  great  Boyars  saw  a  dream 
and  then  Sevilla  knew  that  that  would  not 
come  to  pass,  which  she  had  hoped.     She 

II 

BRYN     MAWR     NOTES 

SIBYL    CASSANDRA 

43 

explained  the  nine  suns  rising,  as  successive 
invasions  of  the  land. 

The  reader  will  perceive  that  this  is  the 
figure  of  Gil  Vicente,  whom  he  called  Cas- 
sandra for  her  sorrows,  and  that  it  corre- 
sponds at  least  in  part  with  the  legend 
of  the  Tiburtine   sibyl  in    the  west,  for 
which  Bede  is  held  responsible.      In  truth 
the  spurious   treatise   attributed    to   the 
Venerable    Bede    includes   the    Hundred 
Suns  in  its  narrative  and  Cassandra  in  its 
enumeration.      The  three  essential  points 
in  the  familiar  story  of  Cassandra  are  (1) 
she  foresaw,  (2)  her  love  affair  was  with  a 
god  and  not  a  mortal,  (3)  she  prized  her 
virginity    above    all.       There   is    in    the 
critical    speech    a    direct    suggestion,   no 
more,  that  Gil  Vicente  was  not  unmindful 
of  these:  the  shepherdess  passes  from  the 
disinclination  to  take  a  mutable  man  for 
a  husband  to  the  proposition  that  God  is 
not  mutable:  then  rapidly  to  her  deter- 
mination  to  be  the  Virgin   from  whom 
Christ  is  to  be  born. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  Gil  Vicente,  being 
a   humanist   of   European   standing,    and 

Bede 

1 

i 

Gil 

Vicente 
a  humanist 

AND     MONOGRAPHS 

'. — 

II 

_ 


44 


THE     PLAY     OF    THE 


In  contact 
with  the 
soil 


II 


known  in  Leyden  and  read  by  Erasmus 
(who   learned   Spanish  for  the   purpose), 
should   have   come   upon   this   legend   in 
learned  literature.      He  knew,  of  course, 
Lactantius,  Isidore  of  Seville,  and  perhaps 
the  venerable  Bede;    he  probably  knew 
the  book  of  Filippo  Barbieri  from  which 
the   artists   drew,   for   the   prophecies   of 
his    sibyls    correspond    roughly    to    that 
text.      It  is  also  possible  that  he  got  it 
through  the  people.     This  Spanish  drama 
is  always  in  contact  with  homely  earth. 
Du    Meril   pointed    out    long    ago59    that 
"quoique  Jean  de  la  Encina  fut  maitre  de 
chapelle  de  Leon  X,  et  que  ses  pieces  aient 
ete  representees  pour  la  premiere  fois  dans 
le  palais  du  due  d'Alva,  son  Egloga  de  la 
Noche   de   Navidad   appartenait   certaine- 
ment   a   la   litterature   populaire   de   son 
temps."      The   dialect   employed   by   his 
shepherds  and  those  of  Lucas  Fernandez  is 
regional  and  faithful.     Gil  Vicente,  even 
if  the  dialogue  against  matrimony  is  to  be 
referred  to  a  French  source,  was  emulating 
rather  than  imitating:  the   theme   is  com- 
mon to  human  experience,  and  he  need  not 


BRYN     MAWR     NOTES 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 

45 

have  lost  touch  with  reality.     One  or  two 
details  suggest  that  this  is  the  case. 

The  proud  sibyl  is  a  figure  in  Italian 
lore.90    She  lives  on,  immured  for  her  pride 
in  a  mountain  near  Norcia,  and  there  must 
stay  until  the  Day  of  Doom.    Various  have 
visited  her,  and  stayed  for  a  year  and  a 
day,  and  come  back  to  tell  of  the  marvels 
of  the  hollow  hill.     The  story  becomes  at 
times  a  variant  of  the  Tannhauser  motive, 
and  again  of  that  of  S.  Patrick's  Purgatory. 
Her  pride  is  punished:   Mary's  humility  is 
rewarded.       In    Sicilian    folk-lore    she    is 
sometimes  Solomon's  sister  and  sometimes 
identified  with  the  Queen  of  Sheba.     "In 
the   province   of   Girgenti   she   is   a   Cas- 
sandra," writes    Ferdinando   Neri,  appar- 
ently unaware  that   she    has   ever  borne 
that  name:    the  devil  wanted  to  prohibit 
the  maga  Sibylla  from  prophesying,  and 
when  God  interfered  he  took  away  her 
beauty  and  allowed  her  only  to  prophesy 
ill.     Now  if  Sicily  looks  on  one  hand,  to 
Byzance,  on  the  other  hand  it  looks  to 
Spain,  and  one  of  the  villages  where  this 
tale  is  told  is  called  Aragona.      The  cur- 

The  proud 
sibyl 

in  Sicily 

AND     MONOGRAPHS 

II 

46 


THE     PLAY     OF     THE 


Conclusion 


II 


rent  may  well  have  set  from  the  Peninsula 
eastward.  The  figure  of  the  proud  sibyl 
herself,  "in  the  deception  of  her  sterile  and 
superb  purity,"  is  the  last  incarnation  of  a 
long  sequence,  but  there  is  no  solution  of 
continuity. 

It  has  been  shown,  then,  that  Gil  Vicente 
was  using  recognized  material,  without 
fantasticality  or  anachronism,  and  that  he 
stayed  in  contact  with  the  soil,  with  the 
popular  and  living  drama:  and  further- 
more, that  as  the  plastic  and  vivid  images, 
so  to  speak,  of  the  Mysteries,  determined 
the  art  of  three  centuries  at  times,  so  here, 
by  an  inverse  process,  the  rich  and  stately 
figures  of  prophets  and  sibyls,  familiar  in 
art  and  unmistakable,  determined  at  a 
moment  in  its  development  the  masque  or 
courtly  interlude. 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 


NOTES 

The  Auto  de  la  Sibila  Casandra  was  pub- 
lished in  Teatro  Espanol  anterior  a  Lope  de 
Vega,  by  J.  N.  Bohl  de  Faber,  at  Hamburg  in 
1832:  again  at  Hamburg  in  1834  in  Obras  de 
Gil  Vicente  correctas  e  emendadas  pelo  cuidado 
e  diligencia  de  J.  V.  Barreto  Feio,  e  J.  G. 
Monteiro.  The  three  volumes  of  this  edition 
contain  only  a  part  of  the  poet's  work.  A 
full  bibliography  will  be  found  in  Aubrey 
Bell,  Four  Plays  of  Gil  Vicente,  Cambridge, 
University  Press,  1920. 

1  Bohl  de  Faber,  p.  56. 

2  January  6th,  1336:  E.  Male,  Le  Renouvelle- 
ment  de  V Art  par  les  Mysteres,  Gazette  des 
Beaux  Arts,  1907. 

3Merimee:  V Art  Dramatique  a  Valencia, 
Bibliotheque  Meridionale,  XVI:  pp.  9-33. 

4  More  precisely,  "Casandra  pastora,  Sala- 
mon  pastor:  Erutea,  Peresica,  e  Cimeria, 
tias  de  Casandra,  e  Esaias,  Mosen,  Abrahan, 
tios  de  Casandra." 

5  Published  in  the  Quarterly  Review,  Decem- 
ber 1846,  p.  179;   Ancient  Portuguese  Drama. 

6  For  these  two  versions  the  writer  is  account- 
able:   the  text  is  in  Bohl  de  Faber,  pp.  64,  65. 

7  Canete,  Teatro  Completo  de  Juan  del 
Encina,  p.  3. 


AND     MONOGRAPHS 


47 


Incomplete 
account  of 
unsatisfac- 
tory 
editions 


II 


48 


Garcia  de 
Resende 


II 


THE     PLAY    OF    THE 


8  E  vimos  singularmente 
Fazer  representacoens 
D'estilo  mui  eloquente 
De  mui  novas  invencoens, 
E  feitas  por  Gil  Vicente. 
Elle  foi  que  inventou 
Isto  ca,  e  o  usou 

Com  mais  graca  e  mais  doutrina; 
Posto  que  Joam  del  Enzina 
O  Pastoril  comecou. 

9  Historia  do  Theatro  Portuguez,  1870:  vol.  I, 
Vida  de  Gil  Vicente  e  su  escuela,  seculo  XVI: 
p.  63. 

10  The  dictionary  of  the  Spanish  Academy- 
defines  chacota  as  rude  merrymaking  or  rustic 
mirth:  it  certainly  seems  here  to  stand  for 
dancing  of  some  sort,  and  is  recognized  by 
musicians  as  the  name  of  a  dance. 

"Gazette  des  Beaux-Arts,  1906,  pp.  88-94. 
Cf.  also  Michel,  Histoire  de  VArt,  IV,  ii,  808. 

12  Sepet,  Les  Prophetes  du  Christ,  p.  44. 

13  D'Ancona,  Origini  del  Teatro  Italiano,  I, 
315. 

"Gazette  des  Beaux-Arts,  1904,  Le  Renou- 
vellement  de  Vart  par  les  Mysteres,    p.  299. 

15  The  authority  is  R.  Hobart  Cust,  The 
Pavement  Masters  of  Siena:   London,  1 90 1 . 

16Canete:  Farsas  y  Eglogas  al  modo  pastoril 
y  castellano  fechas  por  Lucas  Fernandez,  Sal- 
mantino.    Prologue,  p.  lxxviii,  note. 

17  Op.  cit.  pp.  3-8 :  also  Migne,  Patr.  Lat. 
XLII,  1123. 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 


18  Viaje  Literarict',  I,  134,  XIX,  96,  XXII, 
131,  133,  183.       / 

"Romania,  1880,  p.  355,  El  Canto  de  la 
Sibylla:  ibid,  p.  154,  note  2;  Trend,  The  Dance 
of  the  Seises,  in  Music  and  Letters,  January, 
1921,  p.  37. 

20  Les  Origines  Latines  dn  Thedtre  Moderne, 
pp.  179  seqq. 

21  Du  Cange,  Glossarium  III,  255. 

22  Du  Meril,  op.  cit.  pp.  147,  151. 

23  At  Rouen,  on  the  Feast  of  the  Ass  the 
ceremony  ended  with  everyone  going  up  on 
the  roodscreen  while  the  Cantor  gave  out  the 
introit.    Du  Cange,  op.  et  he.  cit. 

24  Du  Meril,  op.  cit.  pp.  153  seqq. 

25  Coussemaker  {La  Drame  Liturgique  du 
Moyen  Age,  Paris,  1861),  published  words  and 
music.  For  the  exact  parallel  with  the  sermon, 
v.  Sepet,  pp.  15-26. 

26  Op.  cit.  p.  180,  note. 

27  Du  Meril,  op.  cit.  p.  181,  note. 

28  These  are  the  opening  lines  of  the  famous 
acrostic  poem,  quoted  in  the  Augustinian  ser- 
mon. Du  Meril  cites  a  Paris  MS.  of  the  ninth 
century  (B.N. 2832)  in  which  the  lines  are 
accompanied  by  musical  notes.  Op.  cit.  p.  187. 
From  the  fifth  century,  he  says,  the  verses 
attributed  to  the  Erythraean  sibyl  were  recited 
in  the  churches;  and  at  Paris,  at  S.  Martial  de 
Limoges,  at  Narbonne,  and  in  a  good  many 
other  churches  of  France,  they  continued  to 
be  a  part  of  the  liturgy  for  a  long  while:  p.  1 85, 
note. 


AND     MONOGRAPHS 


49 


The  East 
Coast  and 
the  Isles 


II 


50 


Play  in 
church 


Early 
tradition 


II 


THE     PLAY    OF     THE 


29  Du  Meril,  pp.  187  sqq.  The  piece  does  not 
however  end  here,  but  proceeds,  after  S. 
Augustine  has  intoned  the  opening  lines  of  the 
sermon,  to  rehearse  the  Annunciation  and 
Visitation,  a  complete  play  of  the  Three  Kings, 
a  Shepherds'  play  and  Massacre  of  the  Inno- 
cents, the  Flight  into  Egypt,  which  seems  to 
have  taken  the  form  of  a  procession  around  the 
church,  and  in  the  nave  the  Fall  of  the  Idols 
in  Egypt.  The  centuries  are  bringing  their 
changes. 

30  Leon  Palustre,  Adam,  Mystere  du  XIIme 
siecle,  Paris,  1877. 

31  D'Ancona,  op.  cit.  I,  315.  This  is,  I  think, 
the  MS.  once  in  the  Ashburnham  collection  and 
now  in  the  Laurentian  library:  it  has  been 
printed  (Turin,  1888)  but  is  hard  to  get  a  sight 
of. 

32  Discordantiae  nonnullae  inter  sanctum 
Hieronymum  et  Augustinum;  Male,  L 'Art 
Religieux  &  la  fin  du  Moyen  Age,  pp.  272-277. 
M.  Male,  who  quotes  the  important  passage  in 
full,  quotes  also  in  a  note  the  original  editor's 
statement  that  it  was  very  famous  already 
(p.  273,  note  1)  and  recognizes  that  bits  of  the 
stuff  had  long  been  floating  about  Italy,  citing 
himself  the  text  on  a  scroll  of  Giovanni  Pisano's 
sibyl  at  Siena  (p.  277,  note  3).  It  might  be 
added  that  the  sibyls  of  the  Pisani  on  the 
pulpit  there  correspond  fairly  in  the  attributes 
to  Barbieri's  text:  the  date  of  these  being 
1266-1268. 


33  D'Ancona,     Sacre     Rappresentazioni 
secoli  X  VI,  X  V,  e  X  VI,  I,  1 67- 1 8 1 . 


dei 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


SIBYL     CASSANDRA 


34  Ibid.,  p.  202. 

35  D'Ancona,  Origini  del  Teatro  Italiano, 
I,  334. 

36  Ibid.,  348.  For  the  ambo,  v.  Bertaux, 
V  Art  dans  Vltalie  Meridionale,  p.  602. 

37  D.  Ancona,  op.  cit.  I,  335. 

38  Mystere  du  Vieil  Testament,  VI,  181,  229: 
Societe  des  Anciens  Textes  Francais,  1891,  3. 
By  the  way,  the  two  companions  of  the  sibyl 
that  M.  Male  postulated  on  the  evidence  of 
painting,  actually  figure  here,  and  are  named 
Tibulle  Tiburtin  and  Evagius  Tiburtin  (pp. 
196-206),  as  he  has  doubtless  long  since 
recalled. 

39  Male,  op.  cit.  215-6;  Du  Meril,  op.  cit. 
185-6;  Male,  op.  cit.  280  seqq.  especially  p.  289. 

40  A.  Graf,  Roma  nella  Memoria  e  nella 
imaginazione  del  medio  evo,  chapter  IX  (pp. 
243-2 6 1 ) ,  p .  2  5  5 .  N.B.,  Graf  has  not  apparently 
heard  of  the  proud  sibyl. 

41  Cursor  Mundi,  Early  English  Text  Society, 
original  series,  vols.  LXII  and  CXV,  57,  59, 
62,  66,  68,  99,  101:  lines  6999,  7019,  7030, 
8889,  9169. 

42  Cf .  Jane  Harrison,  Prolegomena,  Themis, 
passim. 

43Early  English  Text  Society,  extra  series, 
LXXI,  61-63. 

44  Early  English  Text  Society,  extra  series, 
LXII  and  CXV,  129. 

45  Monmerque  and  Francisque  Michel,  The- 
dtre  Francais  du  Moyen  Age,  Paris,  1839:  p.  1*. 
The  women  ask  the  angel  for  Christ,  the  angel 


AND     MONOGRAPHS 


51 


Italian 
Mysteries 


Two 
companions 


II 


52 


Easter 
play 


Autos 

Sacramen- 

tales 


II 


THE     PLAY    OF    THE 


sends  them  into  Galilee  to  look  for  him,  and 
forth  steps  Christ — 

"Sponsus:   Adest  Sponsus  qui  est  Christus, 
Vigilate  virgines." 

In  Du  Meril's  editing  (op.  cit.  p.  233)  this  is  not 
apparent.  The  Munich  Nativity  (Du  Meril, 
187-213)  illustrates  this  dovetailing  of  suc- 
cessive plays,  but  it  shows  at  least  that  they 
were  played  in  succession. 

46  Early  English  Text  Society,  extra  series 
LXXXVII,  Two  Coventry  Corpus  Christi  Plays: 
pp.  109-118:  "Pageants  on  special  occasions, 
extracts  from  the  Coventry  Leet  Book." 

47  Rivadeneyra,  Comedias  de  Calderon  de  la 
Barca,  IV,  pp.  193-212.  It  may  be  apposite  to 
quote  an  illuminating  remark  of  J.  B.  Trend 
from  the  current  number  of  Music  and  Letters 
(January,  1921): 

'An  auto  sacramental  was  of  course  an 
opera,  the  essential  thing  about  it  being  that 
it  was  an  expression — a  musical  and  plastic 
expression  and  after  that  a  poetical  one — of 
the  mystery.  .  .  .  The  reason  why  even  the 
best  autos  are  almost  unreadable  nowadays  is 
that  the  words  are  only  the  libretto."  The 
Dance  of  the  Seises  at  Seville,  p.  20. 

48  Male,  VArt  Religieux  du  XIIIme  siecle 
France,  p.  380.  M.  Male  thinks  this  head  will 
be  David's.     I  take  it  for  Augustus. 

49  The  documents  are  in  Sanpere  y  Miquel, 
Los  Trecentistas  Catalanes,  p.  253. 

60  Bertaux,  op.  et  loc.  cit.  Marcel  Reymond, 
La  Sculpture  Florentine,  I,  81,  96,  131  seqq. 
especially  141-3:  Langton  Douglas,  Siena,  303- 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


SIBYL    CASSANDRA 


309.  For  the  Sienese  workmen  in  France,  see 
De  Mely,  Gazette  des  Beaux  Arts,  1896,  XX, 
p.  375.  On  the  campanile  at  Florence  (1337- 
1360)  with  David  and  Solomon  stand  the  Ti- 
burtine  and  Erythraean  sibyls:  Reymond, 
op.  cit.  I,  128.  For  the  custodia  of  Ouenca  cf. 
Cean  Bermudez,  Diccionario,  I,  118,  s.  v. 
Becerril. 

81  Male,  La  Part  de  Suger  dans  la  Creation  de 
V Iconographie  du  Moyen  Age;  Revue  de  l'Art 
Ancien  et  Moderne,  1914,  256  seqq:  L'Art 
Religieux  du  XIIImQ  Steele,  383  and  note. 

52  Didron,  Christian  Iconography,  II,  298. 
Kraus,  S.  Angelo  in  Formis,  Jahrb.  der  Preuss. 
Kunsts.,  1893,  pp.  84,  86:  plate  p.  18.  Ben- 
edetto, A  Kingsley  Porter,  Lombard  Architec- 
ture, II,  231,  plate  165. 

63  Fra  Angelico  I  cannot  verify,  and  I 
doubt:  Ghirlandajo  set  the  Tiburtine  sibyl 
over  the  arch  of  the  Sassetti  chapel :  Andrea  del 
Castagno's  is  now  in  the  room  at  S.  Appollonia 
Michelangelo's  in  the  Sistine  chapel  possibly 
owe  a  debt  hitherto  unacknowledged  to  those 
of  the  pulpits  of  the  Pisani  at  Pisa,  Pistoja, 
and  Siena:  Raphael's  are  in  S.  Maria  della 
Pace:  Pinturicchio's  in  S.  Maria  del  Popolo 
and  the  Collegiata  at  Spello:  M.  Male  adds 
{V Art  Religieux  de  la  Fin  du  Moyen  Age,  277) 
the  church  at  Tivoli,  which  I  have  not  seen, 
and  S.  Pietro  in  Montorio  and  S.  Maria  Mag- 
giore,  which  I  cannot  recall.  He  is  certainly  in 
error  in  crediting  Pollajuolo  with  any.  He 
says  also  (p.  270)  that  there  was  an  altar  at 
Aracoeli  of  the  XHth  century  carved  with  the 
Sibyl    and    the    Emperor,    citing    Muratpri, 


AND     MONOGRAPHS 


53 


Sculpture 


Situation 


II 


I 


54 


Siena 
and  sibyls 


Chaumont 


II 


THE     PLAY    OF    THE 


Antiq,  ital.  Ill,  880.  For  Amiens,  Du  Meril, 
op.  cit.  185,  note  2;  Avignon,  Okey,  The  Story 
of  Avignon,  p.  315.  The  Augsburg  sibyls  are 
preserved  on  scattered  panels  in  the  Museum ; 
those  at  Ulm  have  been  beautifully  photo- 
graphed. The  frontispiece  of  Attavante  is 
reproduced  in  Miintz,  La  Renaissance  au 
Temps  de  Charles  VIII,  p.  384. 

Siena  had  in  some  way  a  special  devotion  to 
the  sibyls :  one  Sixtus  of  Siena  is  quoted  as  an 
authority  on  the  subject,  and  the  list  of  monu- 
ments already  cited  here  covers  all  the  centu- 
ries and  all  the  arts.  Curiously,  the  frescoes 
in  the  sibyls'  room  at  the  Vatican  are  said  to 
show  traces  of  a  Sienese  hand,  as  the  sculpture 
on  the  prophets'  buttress  at  Orvieto  certainly 
shows  it. 

54  For  the  Sibyls  in  Northern  France  there  is 
little  to  add  to  the  admirable  account  of  M. 
Male,  L' Art  Religieux  du  XIIIme  Siecle,  380; 
V Art  Religieux  a  la  Fin  du  Moyen  Age,  280 
sqq.  The  date  of  the  windows  at  Auch  is 
1507-1513. 

55  Du  Meril,  op.  cit.  185:  he  says  that  the 
sibyls  had  a  special  theatre  of  their  own  at 
Chaumont,  where  their  prophecies  were  repre- 
sented ;  and  that  Simon  Vostre's  version  of  the 
Dit  des  Douze  Sibylles  was  once  at  least  arranged 
for  representation  for  "Henriette  princess 
d'Angouleme  mere  du  rey  Francais." 

66  Many  sources  are  given  in  Male.  The 
sermon  attributed  to  S.  Augustine  is  accessible 
in  Sepet,  Les  Prophetes  du  Christ,  pp.  3-8; 
Isidore  of  Seville  does  not  name  ten  sibyls, 
but  I  think  the  pseudo-Bede  does,  and  tells 


BRYN     MAWR    NOTES 


SIBYL     CASSANDRA 


of  a  dream  of  Nine  Suns,  which  are  the  Ages 
of  the  World :  moreover,  he  includes  Cassandra 
explicitly.  An  admirable  account,  without 
bibliography,  is  Johannes  Geffcken,  in 
Preussiche  Juhrbucher,  1901,  pp.  193-214. 
To  this  I  am  indebted  for  a  hint  on  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  struggle  between  Apollo  and 
Cassandra,  and  on  it  I  have  drawn  freely  in 
this  paragraph. 

57  Balthasar  Porreflo  wrote  in  Spain  in  1621, 
"Besides  these  twelve  already  stated  there  are 
others  mentioned,  such  as  Mantho,  Daphne 
daughter  of  Tiresias  .  .  .  Cassandra,  Xeno- 
clea,  Melisa  and  Lampusa,  and  Strabo  in  his 
Geography  mentions  many  others";  in  the 
matter  of  false  sibyls  he  cites  Juan  de  Horosco 
and  Covarrubias:  Oraculas  de  las  doce  Sibilas, 
profetisas  de  Christo.  Porrefio  I  know,  but  not 
this  book;  it  is  not  in  Gayangos'  Ensayo  de 
una  Biblioteca,  and  I  take  the  citation  from  a 
work  entertaining  if  uncritical,  by  Mariana 
Monteira,  As  David  and  the  Sibyls  Say,  pp.  82, 
87,  88. 

68  M.  Gaster,  Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic 
Society,  1910,  p.  614-8. 

69  Op.  cit.  p.  188  note. 

60  Gaston  Paris,  Legendes  du  Moyen  Age, 
pp.  67-109,  Le  Paradis  de  la  Reine  Sibylle. 
Ferdinando  Neri,  Le  Tradizioni  Italiani 
della  Sibilla,  in  Studii  Mediaevali,  IV,  213, 
seqq.      Pitre'  is  the  ultimate  source  for  Sicily. 


AND     MONOGRAPHS 


55 


Porrefio 


Cassandra 


II 


4 


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